Vista
by Ksiezniczka
Summary: Perceptor wasn't always the mech everyone in the Ark knows and loves. In fact, "he" was once a "she", and got illegally upgraded to become one of Cybertron's top scientists. None of the Autobots are aware of this... except for two...
1. Chapter 1

**Based on a combination of two of my own bunnies (Mixed by someone else) over at the TF Bunny Farm on LJ. The mixed-bunny:**

**"****Perceptor started out life as a femme, and got an illegal upgrade to a mech form to get into the science academy. Now, on the Ark, there are two people who know his secret - who have always known it - Sunstreaker and Sideswipe. They are incredibly protective of the disguised femme, guarding his/her identity with all the tricks they can invent. **

**Only someone notices. Perceptor's pre-academy files are almost all fabrications, and to a good eye, there are holes that can be found in the information. Wheeljack, for some reason, has cause to be looking in the files and starts to see the holes, uncovering more as he starts investigating. **

**But he can't approach Perceptor, as the Twins keep deflecting every attempt..."**

**This is meant to be a prologue to that. So... yeah...**

oOo

Vista wasn't like the other femmes. In appearance, she was nearly impossible to tell from any other femme. The curvy, delicate frame and raised heels were there, as well as the panels on her arms allowing her to transform. Her red colour was a bit out of the norm, granted, but she wasn't the only red femme in existence. But unlike the other red femmes - or the other femmes in general - she really had no interest in becoming some glorified prized possession, as was expected of something as rare and delicate as a femme. As if they had no free will of their own. Well, she supposed, one wouldn't know that they did to look at the other femmes, obsessed over petty things such as their social standings or which mechs made better suitors.

There was something wrong with her, she just knew it.

She had no interest in such frivolities. Rather, she wanted to learn. Ever since she had been created, she had observed and asked questions and picked apart, wanting to know all she possibly could about anything and everything. Her true love, it seemed, was not some handsome mech, but rather science. Her creators tried to keep her away from such an unfitting, lowly passion, but it still burnt inside of her.

She had once made the mistake of telling another femme, Dreamsong, about such aspirations, but Dreamstong had giggled in her face and asked, "You're kidding, right?"

Vista was miserable. Her creators tried to help by sending various suitors her way, but they had no way of knowing that only made the problem worse. Vista didn't want to sparkbond with any of these mechs. If only she had been a mech, able to choose what she wanted to do and attend Iacon's prestigious Science Academy. She knew if femmes were allowed to take the entrance exam, she'd get in. She had the smarts. Just not the right frame, it seemed.

Eventually, her creators noticed.

"We give and give and give to you, Vista," her femme creator, Krystalnacht, yelled. "And you don't appreciate any of it!"

"I do appreciate it, mother, but I never asked for any of these suitors," she tried to stay calm. They'd had this argument many times. Well, never again. She tried to remain patient, but it was growing increasingly difficult. So that night, she left to fend for herself in the streets of the nearby city Vos. It wasn't an ideal situation, but it was better than what she had to put up with.

oOo

Sideswipe wasn't the most honest mech around, or even the most mature, but he was extremely good at what he did. He had risen up from the lowest of low situations to become the merchant he was, one of the best in all of Vos. He wished he could have said he did it single-handedly, but he'd never been alone in his life. It had always been him and his twin brother Sunstreaker.

Sunstreaker's personality lacked any of the charm of his brother's, but he made up for it with appearance and talent. He snorted disdainfully as he walked through the city with his brother. He didn't like coming here any more than he had to, Sideswipe's job be damned. His art was on display in the Towers, for Primus' sake! For all anyone knew, he was way too good for the streets of Vos.

The golden-yellow mech was snapped out of such thoughts when his brother nudged him in the side.

"Sideswipe, what-?!"

"Look," Sideswipe ignored his brother's undignified yelp to point somewhere to their left. A few street-mechs were harassing a red femme. The harassment, in a place like Vos, was not unusual. The presence of a femme was.

"Hey!" Sideswipe yelled out, charging towards the harassers, prepared to kick their faceplates in.

"You're going to be late to meet your client, slagger!" Sunstreaker ran after his brother, watching with a mix mild irritation and amusement as his twin did just that. He himself had of course always been the more ruthless fighter, but that didn't mean Sideswipe couldn't hold his own, especially against weaklings like that. After all, what kind of a mech picked on a femme?

The tussle didn't last more than a few breems before the strange street-mechs ran off, prompting Sideswipe to scream after them, "Yeah, you better run! Run home to your creators; I'll fight them, too!" and then turn to the femme, asking in a much gentler tone of voice, "Are you alright?"

"I confess I've been better," she replied in a light, airy voice, though one tainted with annoyance and slight fear of her overall situation, as well as surprise at these two devilishly suave mechs.

"What's a femme like you doing in a slagheap like Vos?" Curiosity got the best of Sunstreaker.

The femme's pretty face contorted slightly before she answered, "Never mind that. This was a poorly thought-out decision. I should just be getting home now; my creators are probably quite irritated with my sudden disappearance-"

"Hang on," Sideswipe placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, stopping her and comforting her all at once. "You're a runaway?"

Sunstreaker snorted again, not able to imagine wanting to run away from the types of places femmes were normally raised, but was stopped by a wave of emotion from Sideswipe's side of the bond.

"I apologise, but I doubt you'd comprehend my predicament," she replied with an oddly curt tone of voice. "So while I am grateful for your help, I should really get going."

"What makes you so sure we wouldn't 'comprehend'?" the red twin tried smiling at her.

"To be frank, nobody else has."

"Try us."

She sighed and weighed her options. Really, what was the worst that could happen if she were honest? And she needed an escort back to her awful home, after all, didn't she?

"I had rather hoped to become a scientist... I've since found out these aspirations are impossible and I should resign myself to my fate, of course, but-"

"But nothing!" Sideswipe butt in. "So you want to learn science? Go to the Science Academy in Iacon."

"I can't!" she looked aghast. "The Academy would never allow a femme to attend!"

"Then upgrade," he shrugged nonchalantly, his brother still silent and glaring.

She gasped. "Are you implying...? That's highly illegal!"

"Which is why we'll help you make up a plausible backstory, so you don't get caught. Look, we know a guy. Engineer. He can help. _We _can help if you let us."

"Look, you- whoever you are-"

"Sideswipe," he interjected, then pointed a thumb at his companion. "And that bundle of sunshine over there is my brother Sunstreaker."

"Slag off," Sunstreaker spat.

She felt her faceplates heating up at their coarse language, but shook it aside. "Well, then, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker. You're aware that if I get caught in such a situation-"

"You won't get caught! We're better than that!"

"If you would just allow me to finish one sentence-"

"You want this, don't you?" Sideswipe looked her in the optics, and she hesitated before slumping her shoulders defeatedly and replying:

"More than anything..."

"Great! Then let's go!" He pulled her along, walking briskly with Sunstreaker at his other side. "Now, seeing as your accent's is so upper-crust, you'll have been a Tower Mech, got that? Sunny can help you with that."

"Don't call me Sunny, slagger."

Ignoring his brother, he went on, "And I'm assuming we'll have to change your name to something more mech-ish."

"'Mech-ish' isn't a word, Sideswipe," she sighed. "And what's wrong with the designation I was brought online with? Vista is a perfectly respectable name!"

"For a femme, maybe," Sunstreaker snorted a third time. She was beginning to notice he did that a lot, and briefly wondered if it was a front to hide further insecurities. "You want it to be believable, don't you?"

"Just pick something with a similar meaning!" Sideswipe interjected with a much friendlier tone of voice.

She thought about that for a breem before suggesting, "Hm... How about... Perceptor?"

"Hey, that's pretty good!" the red mech grinned. "Perceptor it is, then. Well, then, Perceptor, we'll have to change your colour scheme to make you less recognisable. Maybe not fully, but at the most you need some accents of, like, yellow or something."

"With that shade of red?" Sunstreaker interrupted before she could protest. "That would look awful! Maybe a little bit on her helm if we keep it black, but any more than that would be disgustingly tacky!"

"Well what did you have in mind then, Sunshine?"

"My name is Sun_streaker_ you idiot!" the yellow mech yelled before looking Vista - no, Perceptor - over. "Hm... I bet a teal colour would look nice..."

-_fin?-_

**It is only meant to be a prologue. I don't know if I want to do more with this because I had posted it as bunnies so that someone else would do it! And I have so much to do already! So don't expect anything more unless you do it yourself. Unless, of course, I suddenly get more to say on that matter.**


	2. Chapter 2

**God dammit. I didn't want to work on this anymore. Why won't this fic just leave me alone?!**

oOo

Wheeljack supposed he should have noticed before, but nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary until the Cosmic Rust scare. It was slightly unusual that Sunstreaker and Sideswipe were upset that they hadn't been able to help coat the Statue of Liberty with Perceptor's Corrostop. It didn't occur to him at the time that what upset them is that they weren't there to prevent the Stunticons from kidnapping Perceptor. Why should it? Sunstreaker seemed to hate everyone, and while Sidewipe was friendlier, he still wasn't as social as, say, Jazz or Bumblebee.

Things had gotten stranger when the twins had jumped at the chance to be a part of the rescue squad to get Perceptor out of Foxcreek Canyon, where Megatron had unceremoniously dumped the scientist, but even that wasn't very out of the ordinary, as they were frontliners, and there was a chance of battle.

No, what was really extraordinary was their reluctance to leave the infected scientist's side. Sideswipe staying by Perceptor at all times was baffling enough on its own, but for Sunstreaker to risk such an ugly infection... just thinking about it nearly crashed Wheeljack's CPU!

But then, when he thought about it, both twins had always been friendly towards the scientist. He supposed he hadn't noticed it before because Sideswipe was at least civil to everyone (with the obvious exception of the prankster's favourite victims), but how could he have missed Sunstreaker's unexpected softness with the scientist?

It occurred to Wheeljack to ask Perceptor about it, but he decided to wait a bit before doing so, to further investigate the odd but subtle behaviour of the twins. With the help of Red Alert, who suggested the three might be conspiring against Optimus Prime, but of course this was quickly dismissed.

"There," the paranoid Security Director pointed at one of the many screens in the monitor room on the first day. "Every day one of them brings him energon, since that horrible Cosmic Rust epidemic passed."

"Maybe the thought of losing him scared them," Wheeljack suggested, adding mentally, _'but why...?'_

That wasn't the only instance, of course. There were many. Small things, that could easily be brushed off as something else for anyone who wasn't paying close attention. Things like retrieving supplies and bringing them back to the Ark for the microscope's experiments, or even making sure that nobody got near Perceptor's lab when he was working on something, going so far as to use pranks to distract any officers who wanted to check in with Perceptor before the scientist was ready. When Brawn insulted Perceptor for the umpteenth time, Sideswipe played a particularly nasty trick on the minibot.

The engineer couldn't help but wonder how long this had been going on. Had the twins known Perceptor before the war? They hadn't attended the Science Academy. So how could they have? As sparklings in Iacon? Through their jobs near Vos?

He felt slightly guilty, but Wheeljack hated not knowing something, and so decided it was time to snoop a bit more. It had been six days of watching the twins interact with the scientist when Wheeljack convinced Red Alert to let him see some of Perceptor's personal files. Even then, Red Alert only agreed to it because he suspected the scientist of having a Decepticon agenda.

"Well," Wheeljack finally said after skimming all the files Red Alert had allowed him to see. "I'm stumped."

"About...?" Red Alert urged him to continue.

"Says here Perce was a Tower Mech before attending the Iacon Science Academy. And while I know for a fact that the twins were sparked in Iacon, they were long gone from the city by the time Perce got to the Academy."

"That's impossible," the SD scowled.

"Huh?"

"Look here - his creators were named Krystalnacht and Shiftchange, but my files on the Towers have no mechs or femmes with either designation."

"It could be a typo," Wheeljack suggested, but Red Alert wasn't done yet:

"Besides, Mirage gave no indication of knowing Perceptor before the war. Given Perceptor's intellect and the nature of Tower life, that's highly unlikely."

The engineer couldn't think of a suitable excuse for that.

"You were right to come to me about this," Red Alert went on. "Perceptor's personal file has some very subtle holes in it that I wouldn't have noticed if I wasn't looking for them. It doesn't add up at all..."

Wheeljack resolved to at least try to talk to Perceptor, even if it lead him nowhere. At least, as a fellow scientist, he'd be able to get into the lab.

oOo

Perceptor had meant to thank the twins for once again bringing him much-needed fuel - he had, after all, never been too good at social interactions - but was quickly silenced by the door to the lab sliding open and Wheeljack entering the large room.

Sideswipe and Sunstreaker exchanged looks before suddenly feigning interest in something on one of the tables. Perceptor did his best to look irritated at their presence.

"How're ya, Perce?" Wheeljack asked jovially, as he was so apt to do. Continuing to feign annoyance, the microscope replied:

"I'm perfectly fine, thank you. Now, if you don't mind me asking, why are you in here? You aren't currently working on anything... right?"

"Actually," the engineer looked a little guilty, "I wanted to talk to you." The sudden tensing in the twins' shoulder joints didn't go unnoticed, and so he quickly added, "Alone."

The Lamborghinis both eyed Perceptor warily. Wheeljack pretended not to notice as Perceptor gave them a quick nod and they left the lab, leaving in their wake a curious Lancia and a nervous-looking microscope.

"What was it that you wanted to ask me?" Perceptor asked, once the twins were gone. "I'll be glad to offer my assistance on any side-project you may be tinkering with."

"Nah, I was hoping to talk more about you. I've worked with you for so long, but I don't know slag about you, and if you ask me, that's not right."

The red mech was standing oddly straight as he replied, "I'm flattered, but there isn't much to know about me. I'm a scientist. I'm afraid that's really it - there never has been anything else."

"Really?" Wheeljack did his best to sound more curious than accusatory. "You've been spending a lot of time with the twins lately."

"No more so than usual. What are you implying?"

"I'm not implying anything!" the engineer raised his hands. "Just... trying to figure out what's going on..."

"'What's going on'? There really isn't any-" Suddenly, Perceptor stopped, optics brightening as if he was realising something. "Wheeljack... Who did you speak to and what exactly did they tell you?"

"Nobody told me anything," Wheeljack replied slowly, measuredly. This didn't look like it was going to end well. "I'm just trying to figure out if something's happening between you and them."

Perceptor didn't reply, instead going back to his work.

"Perceptor..." the engineer tried again, but before he could get any further the microscope let out a loud yelp as one of the test tubes leaked extremely hot material onto his sensitive fingers.

The door to the lab opened and Sideswipe and Sunstreaker were immediately flanking the red scientist. If he had been suspicious before, now Wheeljack knew for sure that something was up between the three. Especially with how unlike Perceptor it was to spill the products he worked with - that leak had to have been deliberate.

"I think you should leave," Sunstreaker glared, harsh optics seemingly trying to drill holes in Wheeljack's chest.

"Now hold on just a minute! I'm a scientist too! I got every right to be working in here!"

"It's okay, Wheeljack," Perceptor said softly. "Just... We can continue this discussion later, alright?"

Completely flabbergasted, the engineer gaped at the trio for a few breems before giving up and leaving.

As soon as he was gone, Sideswipe turned to Perceptor, looking at the burnt hand. "Primus, did you have to spill it on one of your original parts?"

"How else would the explanation have sounded genuine?" the microscope replied, then shuddered a little. "I think it would be best if you two, er, 'lay low' when it comes to your interactions with me, though..."

"No," the golden twin scowled. "Why should we?"

"Wheeljack knows something!" Perceptor sounded distraught. "I don't know how, or even the extent of such knowledge, but he clearly suspects something is happening betwixt the two of you and myself. And if we continue with whatever behaviours he's finding to be suspicious, he may begin to search elsewhere for answers."

"Like what, ask Ratchet about your past or something?" Sideswipe shrugged nonchalantly. "Ratchet thinks exactly what we want him to think, remember? You're a former Tower Mech."

"Yes, but you two are most certainly not!"

"Well, fine, we can pretend to be your lovers," the red twin continued, only for his brother to glare again.

"We're not going to do that," Sunstreaker growled angrily. "You think just because I picked the colour scheme that I would lower my standards for it!"

"He's not an it, Sunny."

"He's not even a he, Sideswipe! And don't call me Sunny!"

Perceptor groaned, burying his face in his hands. "Why is this happening? Why now? I was so close to forgetting that my life before the Science Academy even existed..."

"Then we'll just have to try harder," Sideswipe said firmly, ever the optimist. "Don't tell Wheeljack anything until you know for sure what he thinks is happening. And don't freak out, okay? Sunny and I won't let anything happen to you"

"Sunstreaker," the golden mech corrected. "Slagger. Why do I even bother?"

"And suppose, somehow, he does manage to find out," Perceptor said quietly, anxiety creeping into his accented voice. "What then? You two aren't exactly the officers' favourites, and you broke more than a few laws to assist me. And that's not even including all that I did."

The twins exchanged looks, unsure how to reply to that.

"At any rate..." Sideswipe finally started up, his brother finishing:

"...you should at least have Ratchet take a look at that burn."

Perceptor grabbed his burnt hand with his good one, shaking his head defensively. "I can remedy it on my own."

"Why are you so afraid of the Med Bay?"

"I'm not afraid, per se... just... just forget it. I'll repair my hand first chance I get. I promise."

The two Lamborghinis gave Perceptor one last, mournful, "are you sure?" look before leaving the lab. The microscope shuddered one final time before pushing his fears aside and continuing his work. Worrying when he had no proof was absolutely useless.

-_TBC-_

**That seemed like a decent place to end it, don't you think? Seriously, I don't know where I'm going with this one, so this chapter feels more like filler than anything else, really. I think I have some small inkling of an idea over what kind of ending to give the fic, though, thanks to my best friend who is eagerly helping me every step of the way with this.**

**I am always open to suggestions. Or at the very least constructive criticism.**


	3. Chapter 3

**This chapter is SHORT, and for that I apologise. This story is fun, but at the same time I feel it's more trouble than it's worth at times.**

**Plus, you know, I have to work on an essay about Dante's Inferno for one of my courses, so this is really all I had time to get done. I promise next one to be longer! Please don't hate me!**

oOo

"Primus, Perce, how the frell do you get so knotted up in here?" Sunstreaker complained, as he was so apt to do, while he untangled some of the wires where the once-femme's arm met the body.

"It's an unlicensed frame, so it isn't - ow - out of the ordinary for there to be - _ow_ - issues. Ouch, Sunstreaker, please be gentler! I wasn't made to make use of a form like this one!"

"Quit whining," the golden mech growled, though he did ease up on how tight he was pulling on the microscope's internal wiring. "I still don't get why you don't just go to Hatchet about this."

"Because he'd put me on anaesthesia and then I have no way of knowing what would happen next. If something went wrong, if he had to put me into forced stasis lock..." here Perceptor trailed off, pursing his lips together and hesitating, before adding, "Bodies can be changed and upgraded. Sparks cannot."

"There's no real reason for him to take a look anyway," Sideswipe, who was seated on the floor nearby, shrugged nonchalantly. "You worry too much."

"No, I worry precisely the correct amount. One can never worry 'too much'," the ex-femme argued. "Ow! Sunstreaker!"

"Shut up and quit squirming before I hit you," was the golden mech's only reply.

Perceptor only glared in return, wisely choosing not to reply vocally.

oOo

Meanwhile, Wheeljack wasn't in a much better mood. He hated not knowing things; it was a side effect of being a scientist, after all. Had he not minded being out-of-the-know, he would have been a carpenter or something. But he was an engineer as well as, it seemed lately, a detective.

Now there was a funny thought - Wheeljack and Red Alert, private eyes. He almost chuckled to himself, if not for the fact that it would have earned a rather scary glare from the aforementioned security director.

"What are they doing now, hm?" Red Alert muttered, though more to himself than the engineer.

"Huh?" the Lancia followed the Lamborghini's line of vision to one of the many monitors, showing Perceptor's lab - the microscope was in there much more often than he was in his private quarters. There, on the monitor, another Lamborghini appeared to be fixing something in the aforementioned microscope's shoulder, while a third sat on the floor nearby, chatting as he was so apt to do. It was entirely unheard of for Sunstreaker, of all Autobots, to be doing something like that - repairs, maybe? A massage? - for anyone.

"Perhaps planting a bug?" the paranoid SD continued muttering to himself. "The twins plan to listen in on our next strategy meeting? I knew it..."

"Hang on, Red, let's not jump to conclusions like that yet," Wheeljack said, earning a surprised look - apparently, the SD hadn't expected to be heard.

"Why shouldn't I put forth theories?" Red Alert asked sorely. "It's more than you've done."

"Hey, none of that! At least I tried t' talk to the guy!"

"And that went over wonderfully, didn't it?" the SD challenged.

Wheeljack shifted uncomfortably, knowing Red Alert had a point. The delivery of said point had been mean-spirited, sure, but it was still a point. "There's gotta be someone else we could ask before we jump to such conclusions."

"I say we have Ratchet inject them all with truth serum."

"Someone less drastic?"

The Lamborghini pouted. "Who else could you trust enough not to be working with them? The only mechs who would be of any use to our cause have been publicly accused of betraying the Autobot cause, and with good reason!"

The engineer sighed. He knew Red Alert meant well, but working with him on this was extremely tiring. How did Inferno put up with this? "Maybe - just maybe - they can help us, though. Perceptor's not talking to anyone right now but those twins, so they're obviously not working with him. Let's just try it, okay?"

Red Alert deepened his pout. "Very well. I suppose we could go to Prime if they betray us... I was thinking you might try Skyfire, or Mirage. After all, Mirage was a Tower Mech, and has that whole invisibility thing. And Skyfire attended the Science Academy later than you did, did he not?"

Actually, Skyfire had attended around the same time as Wheeljack, but he had gone back as a mentor when the younger Perceptor had attended, so Wheeljack neglected to correct the Lamborghini, instead nodding, setting out to find one of the two suggested.

-_TBC-_

**This probably won't be very much longer. I'd never intended it to get very long. My best friend has been extremely helpful, as have a few reviewers both here and on deviantart, and for that I am extremely grateful.**


End file.
